Vatican

Pope signs decrees in causes for St. John Paul’s mentor, two martyrs

By Catholic News Service Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Newly elected Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Poland embrace at the Vatican in this 1978 photo. Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of Cardinal Wyszynski, St. John Paul II’s mentor. (CNS photo/Arturo Mari)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis recognized the miracle needed for the beatification of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a mentor and friend of St. John Paul II.

The pope also signed decrees recognizing the miracles needed for the future beatifications of Father Francesco Mottola, an Italian priest who founded the Secular Institute of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart, and Alessandra Sabattini, an Italian laywoman who volunteered helping people with drug addictions and those with disabilities through the Pope John XXIII community, run by the late Father Oreste Benzi. She died in 1984 at the age of 22 after being struck by a car.

The other decrees included recognition of the martyrdom of Juan Roig Diggle, a 19-year-old layman who was killed in 1936 during Spain’s civil war, and Benigna Cardoso da Silva, a 13-year-old laywoman who was murdered in 1941 in Brazil by a would-be rapist.

The pope signed the decrees after a meeting Oct. 2 with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. The Vatican published the news the next day. The late Cardinal Wyszynski had been the primate of Poland and one of the late pope’s most ardent supporters, starting when then-Karol Wojtyla was a young bishop.